As much as I love experimenting in my bright red kitchen apron, I consistently (and constantly) repeat my recipes. I could claim that I do this to tweak my recipes, aiming to achieve perfection! But really, I just have trouble veering from course when I’ve had a good success. Take muffins: there is no breakfast-y food (apart from whole milk yogurt + granola) that I love more than muffins. But how many muffins have stayed in my repertoire over the years? TWO. While I have experimented with other varieties from time-to-time, I inevitably revert back to my dear old standbys.
BUT! As of this past week, I’ve fallen – for the time being, at least – out of my muffin rut!
Last Saturday I picked up a twisty-tied baggie filled with large, grade A medjool dates from a Syrian shop by my old house. Typically, I enjoy eating dates plain or I take out the pit and stuff a pecan or large walnut inside. (On more than one occasion, I’ve also stuffed a few dark chocolate chips, which was overkill.) Generally speaking, when I treat myself to dates, I can’t imagine eating them baked or stewed or blended into something new. In my book, Plain-Jane is the way to go, to really relish them.
But, after my grocery rendezvous, I found an enticing recipe on the internet featuring dates! I noticed that this muffin called for a generous serving of molasses. From my limited quick-bread experience, I’ve found that incorporating molasses in baked goods yields deliciously moist breads with rich flavor. I debated whether it was worth it to hack-up my delicious dates and throw them into a batter, fearing they’d lose their luster in a tangle of cinnamon and nutmeg flavors. In the end, I decided to give it a shot. I tweaked this recipe only slightly, and the result: a success, a “repeat” and everything I hoped it would be! These muffins were moist and savory, and each bite had a warm, gooey piece of date or a crunchy piece of walnut. They also freeze wonderfully. I think I’ve found my third rut!
Ingredients:
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar (preferably dark)
heaping 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
scant 1/2 teaspoon all spice
scant 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
scant 1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk (or other alternative or milk)
1/3 cup molasses*
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 free-range eggs
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped, pitted dates
few pinches of extra all purpose flour
*Cool trick for the molasses: to avoid having the molasses stick to the measuring cup, simply grease the inside of the cup with a thin layer of vegetable oil. Then, measure desired amount of molasses into the cup. When you pour the molasses into other liquids it will slide right out and leave little-to-no residue in the bottom of the cup.
Methods:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease preferred muffin tin. Because I was making these muffins for dinner (as a side dish, rather than a breakfast-style main dish) I made 16 small muffins. Alternatively, grease two 6-muffin containers, or one mongo-muffin container and vary the cooking time.
2. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir with a fork to combine.
3. In a separate bowl, lightly beat egg. Add soy milk and vegetable oil. Grease the 1/3 cup with vegetable oil (see above note) and measure molasses. Whisk with a fork and incorporate into dry ingredients. Fold in walnuts. Before folding in chopped dates, because they’re gooey when cut and prone to sticking together, I tumbled the chopped dates in a sprinkling of white flour and then folded them into the batter. That way the were able to move uniformly throughout the dough and not clump together. Roll dates in flour and fold into batter.
4. Spoon batter into muffin trays 3/4 full. If you desire more of a muffin-top (as I did), fill 4/5ths of the way but be sure to grease the top of the pan, too, because the muffins will rise over the top.
5. Depending on the muffin size, the baking time will vary. For small muffins, mine were set in the middle and clean (from the “knife test”) within 18-20 minutes. For large muffins, I imagine they’ll need to bake close to 30 minutes.
6. Once removed from the oven, let cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack so they set. To remove muffins, carefully take a dull knife and run around the edge of each container (and very carefully under the muffin top, if you filled them a bit higher) and gently pry out.
these are excellent! i left the dates and walnuts coarsely chopped and the crunch is so good!